As is well known to those skilled in the art, it is possible to treat charge mixtures by various techniques in order to recover one (or more) components in enriched or in pure form. In the case of liquids, this may commonly be effected by distillation or adsorption. In the case of gases, it is possible to effect separation by absorption or adsorption or by distillation of the liquified gases.
Although prior art attempts to separate gases, such as mixtures of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, by use of membrane technology have been heretofore considered, they have not been successful for many reasons. Among these may be noted the failure of the membranes due to mechanical defects (e.g. cracking) or the attainment of undesirably low Separation Factors and/or Flux.
It has also been difficult-to-impossible to fabricate membranes to be used in these processes because the fabrication processes were slow, difficult to control, produced unsatisfactory membranes, or required undesirable reagents (e.g. large quantities of water).
Background relating to this invention may be obtained from the article The Sol-Gel Process by Larry L. Hench and Jon K. West Chem. Rev. (1990) 90 33-72, which is incorporated herein by reference.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method of forming a membrane of an oxide of a metal such as aluminum characterized by its ability, when formed as a membrane, to separate components of charge streams. Other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.